Abstract
Three structurally related gold(I) carbene complexes with bulky hydrophobic ligands i.e. 1–3 were investigated in solution for further consideration as candidate anticancer agents. Cytotoxic assays were subsequently conducted on bone marrow-derived preosteoclast cell line of human origin (FLG 29.1) and human colon cancer cells (HCT-116). A far greater cytotoxic activity was measured for compound 1 against HCT-116 cells compared to 2 and 3; conversely, all compounds were highly and similarly active against FLG 29.1 cells. Results obtained for the reaction of complexes 1 and 2 with RNase A documented the occurrence of a weak interaction with this model protein and the formation of a tiny amount of the corresponding adduct. Moreover, a certain reactivity of the complex 2 was also detected toward GSH. The general implications of the obtained results are discussed.
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Acknowledgments
AP, DC and LM gratefully acknowledge the financial support from Beneficentia Stiftung (Vaduz, Liechtenstein), Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze and AIRC (IG-16049). MDD and ZDB acknowledge the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development Serbia, project No. 172011. MDD acknowledge the research grant from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), Germany.
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Pratesi, A., Cirri, D., Đurović, M.D. et al. New gold carbene complexes as candidate anticancer agents. Biometals 29, 905–911 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-016-9962-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-016-9962-0